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Video Description
News is to the mind what sugar is to the body: appetizing, easily digested, and harmful in large doses. This lecture from Academy of Ideas makes the case for a radical change of diet. Drawing on Rolf Dobelli’s Stop Reading the News, it argues that the daily feed manufactures passivity, ignorance, polarization, and chronic stress. It trains our attention on distant crises while ignoring the life we can actually influence. The remedy is not ignorance, but depth: books, essays, and long-form thought over the endless click of breaking news.
Full Video Transcript
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News is to the mind what sugar is to the body.
Appetizing, easily digestible, and extremely damaging.
Most people think that consuming the news makes one uninformed a citizen
who is equipped to form intelligent opinions on social and political issues.
In this video, drawing from the Swiss author Rolf Dobelli’s book Stop Reading the News,
a manifesto for a happier, calmer, and wiser life. We argue that the opposite is true.
News consumption fosters ignorance, intolerance, passivity, and chronic stress.
News organizations want you to believe they’re giving you a competitive advantage.
Plenty of people fall for this. In fact, consuming the news is far from a competitive advantage.
It actively disadvantages you. There’s no question that the dross we’re spoon-fed every day
is not only completely worthless but actively damaging, writes Rolf Dobelli.
To understand one of the problems with news consumption,
we can turn to a well-known set of experiments
conducted by psychologists Martin Seligman and Stephen Meyer in the 1960s.
In these studies, rats were subjected to electric shocks.
One group could stop the shocks by turning a wheel.
The other group had no means of escape.
The first group of rats did not display any adverse effects to the shocks,
But the rats that were powerless to stop the shocks developed what Seligman and Meyer called
learned helplessness, which is a condition marked by passivity, reduced motivation,
and anhedonia, the inability to feel pleasure. In many ways, the news functions like these
electric shocks. We are continually bombarded with distressing reports that provoke stress,
anxiety, fear, and a sense of hopelessness. Yet instead of turning off the news or taking
meaningful action on the issues that concern us, we continue, day after day, year after year,
to expose ourselves to this steady stream of negativity. In doing so, we place ourselves
in a similar position to the helpless rats, and we gradually develop a learned helplessness that
insidiously seeps into our personal life. Or as Dobelli writes,
Learned helplessness doesn’t just make us passive about what’s on the news.
Learned helplessness spills over into every area of our lives.
Once the news has made us passive, we tend to behave passively towards our family and our jobs
as well, precisely where we do have room for maneuver. British media researcher Jody Jackson
takes a similar view. When we tune into the news, we are constantly confronted with unresolved
problems and the narrative does not inspire much hope that they will ever be solved.
It’s no surprise, then, that we feel depressed when we consume the news,
which confronts us with problems that are mostly impossible to solve.
Another major problem with news consumption is that it promotes ignorance.
Thomas Jefferson recognized this in 1807 when he wrote that
the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them.
One of the reasons the news leaves us less informed is because it radically oversimplifies what it reports on.
The world is a complex system and social, political, and environmental issues are not linear phenomena with one or two clear causes.
They are chaotic, non-linear processes shaped by hundreds, if not thousands, of interwoven
factors, far beyond the capacity of the human mind to fully comprehend.
Yet instead of acknowledging this complexity with intellectual humility, and grappling
with it through in-depth reporting, the news reduces events to simplistic narratives, soundbites,
and catchphrases, which it presents as the truth.
In doing so, the news distorts the reality of what it claims to explain.
Or as Dobelli writes,
True, X and Y may well have had a causal impact, but this is far from proven and other influences may well have been much more significant.
News has to be extremely short even as it tells a story.
This can only be done through a brutal process of simplification.
Since the news is so telescoped, it’s necessarily a bullshit explanation.
In this way, consumers are given the illusion that the world is simpler and more explicable than it actually is,
and the quality of their decision-making suffers.
To make matters worse, these simplified explanations of social and political events are far from unbiased.
Rather, they are filtered through the news outlet’s political agenda
and shaped by the interests of government agencies and corporate advertisers.
The media entrepreneur Clay Johnson admitted that,
For every reporter in the United States, there are more than four public relations specialists
working hard to get them to write what their bosses want them to say.
The 20th century American writer Upton Sinclair asked,
When you read your daily paper, are you reading facts or propaganda?
Or as Dobelli echoes,
These days, it’s much harder to distinguish between truthful, unbiased news items and
those with an ulterior motive.
There’s a vast industry of lobbying and leverage at work behind the scenes.
By concealing its political biases, ulterior motives, and manipulative intentions behind
reductive narratives and simplistic explanations that make the world seem far more comprehensible
than it is, the news cultivates an intellectual hubris in its consumers.
Today, many people hold strong opinions on virtually every issue amplified by the media,
and with each new trending news topic, public discourse and social media are flooded with
self-assured commentary. In effect, the news is cultivating a population of true believers,
that is, individuals who are so convinced they know the truth that they are intolerant and even
hateful toward those who hold opposing views. Hence, news consumption deepens societal
polarization erodes the possibility of civic discourse and turns neighbors who might otherwise
be friends into ideological enemies. In an age when, thanks in large part to the news,
the average citizen is highly opinionated, profoundly ignorant, and increasingly intolerant,
the following wisdom of Marcus Aurelius is sorely needed. You are at liberty not to form opinions
about all insundry, thereby sparing your soul unrest. Or as Dobelli echoes, it’s a serious
mistake to think we need to form an opinion about everything. 90% of our opinions are superfluous,
yet the news is constantly urging us to form opinions. This robs us of concentration and
inner peace. If you unleash a whirlwind of news on the population, it polarizes the public.
News and comments about the news bring out the worst in humanity. You only have to read the
comments underneath any online article. The hatred you find there is alarming.
Consuming the news also erodes our ability to think deeply and sustain focus. In the past,
the amount of news one could consume was limited by the distribution of newspapers
or the production of an evening news broadcast. Today, 24-hour news channels, websites,
and social media feeds bombard us with a never-ending stream of news headlines
that keep our minds in a state of perpetual distraction. According to the Pew Research
center the average person consumes about 60 news items a day or 20 000 a year and as researchers
at the university of tokyo have observed the greater number of news items one consumes the
fewer neurons they have in the anterior cingulate cortex a region of the brain critical for
attention impulse control and moral reasoning and as dobelli writes if you watch a news junkie
you’ll see this in action their concentration span shrinks and they have trouble controlling
their emotions. I always notice that the most passionate consumers of the news, even if they
were once also passionate bookworms, no longer have the ability to read longer articles or books.
After four or five pages, they get tired, their attention dissipates, and they get restless.
It’s not because they’re getting older or busier. Rather, the physical structure of their brain has
changed. The news also feeds the undercurrents of stress and anxiety that plague modern life.
Producers of the news exploit our negativity bias,
which is our predisposition to react more strongly to negative information than positive,
with reports of wars, heinous crimes, riots, political gossip and turmoil,
economic instability, potential pandemics and climate catastrophes.
Graham Davey, professor emeritus of psychology at Sussex University,
has demonstrated through his research that the more one consumes news,
the more stress and anxiety one suffers in daily life.
And given that stress inhibits the functioning of our immune system and is implicated in a wide
range of disease, we can safely say the news is making us sick. Or as Dobelli writes,
consuming the news reduces your quality of life. You will be more stressed, more on edge,
more susceptible to disease, and you’ll die earlier. That’s an especially sad piece of news,
but one that does, at least, deserve your attention. Because the news is so damaging
to individual and societal well-being, Dobelli advocates for radical abstinence, cutting the
news out of our lives entirely. For those skeptical about giving it up for good, Dobelli suggests we
experiment with abstaining from the news for 30 days. During this period, the psychological and
emotional benefits of news abstention become apparent, and as Dobelli notes, very few who
try this experiment will choose to go back, or as he writes, during the initial stage of abstinence,
You’ll have to literally force yourself not to consume any news.
So, what should you do if you relapse?
The same thing an alcoholic would.
Simply start again, reinstituting a zero-tolerance policy.
For ten years, I’ve consistently practiced what I preach.
The impact on my quality of life and decision-making has been remarkable.
Try it.
You’ve got nothing to lose.
You have so much to gain.
Abstaining from the news does not mean we have to stick our head in the sand
and remain ignorant about important social, political, and world events, for we have access
to a wide range of informational sources that can help us stay informed without falling prey
to the pitfalls of news consumption. Long-form content, such as books, well-researched articles,
podcasts, documentaries, textbooks, online courses, and academic journals, offer the depth and nuance
needed to do greater justice to the complexity of world events in a way that the news, with its
short-form, oversimplified, biased reporting cannot. Read books and long articles that do
justice to the complexity of the world, advises Dobelli. After a few months, you’ll be rewarded
with a clearer understanding of the world. Long-form pieces are the opposite of news.
Much of their content is valuable, providing new insights and background information.
But be careful. These formats are far from a guarantee of relevance.
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With a clearer understanding of the world, we will be better equipped to act as a genuine
force for good in society. DiBelli notes that when he raises the idea of abstaining from the news,
many respond with the following concern, if we stop following the news, who will hold the powerful
accountable and drive social change? Yet given that the news manipulates public opinion, frequently
to the advantage of those in power, and fosters learned helplessness rather than action,
it should come as no surprise that the American Revolution, the French Revolution,
the revolutions of 1848, and the fall of the Soviet Union did not need current affairs programs,
news websites, or feeds. The most influential figures of these movements informed themselves
and inspired others through books, pamphlets, public gatherings, speeches, debates, and
meaningful conversation. For example, during the American Revolution Thomas Paine’s 47-page pamphlet
Common Sense was profoundly influential in sparking revolutionary sentiment in America.
How did people stay informed? They thought, and they debated, explains Dobelli. Is political
discourse even possible without the news? This question suggests that one can only form a
well-founded opinion via the news media, yet that isn’t true. While abstaining from the news can
reduce our ignorance and make us more aware of social issues, it also gives us the opportunity
to redirect our attention toward what truly matters and what we can influence. Our mental
and physical health, our relationships and our work. 2000 years ago, the stoic philosopher
Epictetus opened his Enchiridion with the timeless insight, some things are in our control and others
are not. He went on to teach that peace of mind and a flourishing life depend on investing our
time and energy on what lies within our power. And as Dobelli continues,
99.9% of all world events are outside your control. Devote your energies to things you
can influence. There are more than enough of those, but an earthquake on the other side of
the planet isn’t one of them. According to the Pew Research Center, the average American spends
between 58 and 96 minutes a day consuming news. Over the course of a year, this amounts to nearly
an entire month of news consumption. But given the many harms we have explored, news consumption is
more than just an enormous waste of time. It is a kind of mental poison. In choosing to abstain
from the news, we cleanse and detoxify our mind and improve our psychological health.
Just see these superfluous ones. Sick are they always. They vomit their bile and call in a
newspaper, observed the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Or as Dobelli concludes, the news is
mental pollution. Keep your brain clean. It’s your most important organ. Still worried about
missing something important? In my experience, when something truly important happens, you hear
about it even if you’re living in a protected news cocoon. Big news will inevitably leak out
and find you, and if somehow you don’t hear about the bus attack, it doesn’t matter. On the contrary,
you should be pleased. Worse things may be happening on other planets, and we are comfortable
remaining in the dark.
Source: Academy of Ideas